Cambridge Who's Who lifetime member John D. "Jack" Goeken is a proven executive and entrepreneur who has founded several major corporations that provide residential and commercial solutions in telecommunications, lighting and freight forwarding. He is the chairman and CEO of Goeken Group Corp., the umbrella company for managing his business ventures, which include FTD Mercury Network, Airfone (eventually sold to GTE), InFlight Phone Corp. and many others. Business Week has heralded John Goeken as "the phone world's most prolific inventor." In 1991, Business Week also named him one of the year’s top entrepreneurs. Beginning at an early age, he demonstrated astuteness in telecommunications and entrepreneurship. While he was still in high school, he began a radio repair business in the back of a friend's vacuum cleaner shop. Later, he served in the U.S. Army as a Signal Corps microwave specialist. Afterwards, he went on to continue selling and repairing two-way radios.

After hearing grievances by truck driver customers who felt two-way radio channel capacity and range left something to be desired, John Goeken envisioned a microwave communications system that could provide improved transmission range. In 1963, he founded Microwave Communications Inc. (better known as MCI Inc.). The company took off and, upon seeking to license the microwave repeater system for widespread use, he discovered that AT&T had a monopoly over that form of communication. John Goeken felt this was an unfair manipulation of business and went into litigation against AT&T. The lawsuit eventually brought about the split of AT&T into seven regional "Baby Bell" companies.

He ushered digital air-to-ground transmission technology and live radio and television programming onto commercial airlines through the companies he founded – Airfone, which he sold to GTE Corp., and then InFlight Phone Corp. He actually created InFlight Phone Corp. in order to compete with GTE Corporation’s monopoly in air-to-ground communications. This signaled a new era of competition for companies offering digital Terrestrial Aeronautical Public Correspondence (TAPC) services.
To this day, John Goeken remains committed to developing innovative solutions for the world's health, safety and security issues. Global MED-NET International, a company under Goeken Group Corp., offers streamlined medical information storage and forwarding services, enabling people in emergency situations to convey essential medical data to emergency care providers and doctors with a single phone call. Personal Guardian is an emergency notification and response device that integrates advanced technology (including global positioning satellite) with 24-hour emergency response operators to help users gain safety assistance.

His newest venture, PolyBrite International, Inc., a Goeken Group Corp. subsidiary, is a cutting edge global lighting technology company that develops solid-state LED lighting systems. A one of a kind, patented polymer lens is used to disperse and distribute bright LEDs used in the PolyBrite product. The company’s green group of products, named Borealis, is intended as an alternative to conventional lighting sources, offering high luminosity and superior heat management.
John Goeken has received numerous awards and commendations for his innovations and contributions to the communications industry; he has also been inducted into several of Halls of Fame. On July 26, 2006, he was awarded the "Distinguished Citizen’s Award" by Loretto Hospital Foundation, in recognition for advancing healthcare with his creative, life-saving service, Global MED-NET, Inc. He was also the recipient of the David Sarnoff Award in 1990 from The Radio Club of America for significant contributions to the advancement of electronic communications and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1987 from Southern Illinois University. John Goeken holds an honorary doctor of humanities from Lewis University, an honorary doctor of business administration from The University of New Hampshire and an honorary doctor of humane letters from Drexel University. He is a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and the National Business Aviation Association. To learn more about Cambridge Who's Who lifetime member John Goeken and the Goeken Group Corp., please visit www.goeken.com.